“The Band Who Ruined Indie Rock”*

Judging by the frequency of tweets and Facebook updates regarding the calamitous state of the terrible outdoors, I think we’re all in need of some pick-me-ups.  It is Groundhog Day, after all, and according to our friends down at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, PA, spring is coming soon! However, for anyone who is unfamiliar with New England weather “patterns” (I use that term loosely as there really aren’t any), spring entails basically what we have outside right now, kicked up 35 or 40 degrees. All sarcasm aside, let’s get down to it:

Last weekend=Decemberists at the House of Blues.
Set list:
July, July!
Down by the Water
Rox in the Box [Can somebody please explain these lyrics? I don't get them.]
All Arise!
Won’t Want for Love
The Engine Driver
The Soldiering Life
This is Why We Fight
The Rake’s Song
O Valencia!
The Chimbley Sweep
A Cautionary Song
June Hymn

I’m not gonna lie, on the whole, the concert was just whelming.  Not over-, not under-, just whelming. It was kind of short.  But it was, at the same time, pretty great just to be seeing them live.  I’m posting five videos below–one of the best parts of the show was the crowd’s energy and how utterly devoted everyone seemed, and I think it comes through, especially (as you’ll be able to hear) because everyone sang along to almost every song (apologizing in advance…don’t judge).  Also something totally awesome was when some of them came into the audience OHMYGOD during “A Cautionary Song” (which, by the way, is one of their funniest).  In addition to the videos, I’m also posting “The Rake’s Song”–it’s pretty heavy on the bass and drum for a Decemberists song, and I wish I had a live recording.

The energy in the room was superintense when they played this, and Jenny Conlee, Chris Funk, and their guest violinist were all on drums, über-synchronized and pretty badass.  And the entire audience was singing, which was also pretty awesome. Even though the lyrics are pretty intense. Also you can hear us talking in some of them…sorry about that.

Enough rambling, I know you want your videos:

“Down By the Water”

“The Engine Driver”

“This is Why We Fight”

“A Cautionary Song” (Sorry the quality is terrible.  I passed the camera to Dan to record because I was right in the front trying to take pictures to send to my friend Colin, who, as I told him, is “my second favorite Colin M.” They were literally six inches from us.)

“June Hymn”

“June Hymn” definitely has to be one of my new favorites. All videos courtesy of Dan Conroy’s iPhone.

Stay warm and dry! Coming next week, maybe some summery tunes to bring us out of this winter rut?

Reese

*http://thephoenix.com/boston/music/114581-how-the-decemberists-ruined-indie-rock/

A Re-cap and a Pre-cap

Hello blog readers!

Happy Wednesday! I’m super excited to be back–break was good, but it’s awesome to be posting again! So let’s get right to it:

Re-cap:
I have this one friend who knows the Boston music scene pretty well, and I get new music from him pretty consistently.  Over vacation, we saw Mr. Sister at the Middle East [Upstairs].  If you’ve never been, they have some awesome events coming up–it’s a really great venue, and it’s kind of behind/in? this restaurant, so you can grab a relatively cheap dinner and then go see a show. Anyways, Mr. Sister is great.  At their album release earlier this year, the lead singer (Amelia Emmet) gave out hand-embroidered ties! So cool, right? They also played with Spirit Family Reunion right before Christmas (SFR was here at BUC in November).  The show at the Middle East was technically another band’s CD release, but let’s be honest–I’m sure I wasn’t the only one there just to see Mr. Sister.  Said friend is kind enough to allow me to shoot videos of all the concerts we go to on his iPhone (see the Mumford post for more of those!), so here’s Mr. Sister at the Middle East:

Okay, so I’m also posting for you a lovely almost-20-minute audio clip.  It’s basically the entire show that isn’t on that video.  If you don’t have 20 minutes, might I suggest a skip to the end, around 17:10?  The finale was just Amelia and one of her bandmates, and it was pretty mind-blowing.

Thus concludes the Re-cap.  Oh yeah, sorry most of the video is sideways.  I’ll try to do better next time.  Next time is Friday, by the way.  See below.

Pre-cap:
Friday is the Decemberists! At the House of Blues! I think I’ve mentioned before that the Decemberists were introduced into (and subsequently rocked) my world a couple years ago by some roommates.  Well, these roommates of mine went to see the Decemberists that winter.  And I was very jealous.  Especially because I was the only one with a car and they had me pick them up afterwards.  Anyways, my grudge ends here, because they’re playing the House of Blues! Yay!

They released “Down By the Water”, a track from their new album The King is Dead, on NPRMusic a few weeks ago (it’s in a previous blog post). Now that the album is out, I can post a few more today; next Wednesday if I have videos, I’ll post those you.  It might be January, but we’re all over the Decemberists.  I know, terrible, terrible joke. Anyways:

Appropriately (especially in light of my bad joke), here’s “January Hymn”.  It talks about winter.  Which is fitting because we’re supposed to get another foot of snow tonight! It’s pretty mellow, but much more of their style than “All Arise!” (see below). And I’m pretty impressed with Colin Meloy’s vocals here.  Not unusual, he’s generally impressive, but still:

“All Arise!” is definitely much more down-homey than most of their other tracks, but the instrumentals are smooth and solid and Mr. Meloy, as always, comes through with the lyrics:

And last–for now at least–”Calamity Song”.  I just like it. Pretty standard Decemberists fare, but to be honest, they’re just kind of really awesome at what they do.

Okay, and finally, here’s Wye Oak–they’re opening the show Friday night.

I’m pretty excited.  Can you tell?

UPDATE: The King is Dead is #1 on the Billboard 200 with over 93,500 copies.  Yep.

Have a great rest of the week! Make sure to check back next Wednesday for video and audio from the show (and if I’m really lucky, a picture of me and Colin Meloy.  We’ll see.)

Reese